The once-authoritative Economist news magazine has set fire to its credibility, again, by reporting that global warming has slowed to the point where one columnist argues that we should wait “a decade or two” before instituting any policy measures to ameliorate the threat. At the same time, Google, a company
Continue readingAuthor: Richard Littlemore
DeSmogBlog: Do the Math! A Surprisingly Optimistic Video
University of Lethbridge Prof Jim Byrnes weighs in with a short video with survey of numbers both frightening and reassuring. The conclusion is obvious. There’s no question we can “afford” to fix the climate problem – only a more pressing question as to why we have not even begun …
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Enbridge Video Stunningly Misleading
Enbridge vid.jpg For compulsive watchers of, Enbridge Inc., the spill-crazy pipeline company that wants to pipe tarsands crude to the Canadian West Coast – or just for students of the barefaced lie – this video can't be beaten. It purports to show the pipeline route, including an open sea exodus
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Arctic Ice Decline Much Worse Than Expected
August 2012, Arctic ice extent models.png As the extent of Arctic sea ice declines to levels unrecorded since satellite monitoring began, the National Snow and Ice Data Center has released a new analysis that shows the situation to be worse by far than even the most pessimistic models predicted. It's a
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Heartland’s Joe Bast lashes out at Institute’s own "friends"
Josph Bast.jpg The somewhat hysterical Heartland Institute President Joe Bast has lashed out at the lengthening list of "friends" who are trying to distance themselves from the institute's increasingly embarrassing anti-science antics. In a letter to one of the "scholars" who have asked to be removed from the list of "Heartland
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Diageo: Liquor giant backs away from science-dissembling Heartland Institute
Diageo brands.jpg The London-based liquor giant Diageo has joined the companies that are criticizing or cutting off the Heartland Institute in protest over its campaigns to confuse people about climate science and to cast prominent climate activists as "murderers, tyrants and madmen." As Leo Hickman reports in the Guardian, a
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Microsoft Fail: Computer company criticizes Heartland but won’t withhold future support
Microsoft corp citizenship.png Microsoft is finally taking a clearer position denouncing the Heartland Institute's irresponsible position on climate science, but the computer megacorp still won't shut the door on providing Heartland with free software in the future. In the wake of Heartland's highly offensive advertising campaign, in which Heartland said, flatly,
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Heartland Billboard: "the most prominent advocates of global warming aren’t scientists; they are murderers, tyrants, and madmen"
Heartland Billboard.png The Heartland Institute's current President, Joe Bast, has launched a billboard campaign denouncing science, scientists, conscientious political activists – and by association EVERYONE else who speaks with concern about climate change – as murderous, tyanical or insane. Settling on that third descriptor, it's difficult to imagine what kind of
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Koch Brothers fund Fraser Institute
Fraser Institute.gif Hats off to Alex Stoymenoff at the Vancouver Observer for turning up evidence that the Koch Brothers have been ladling money into Canada's own climate dissembling Fraser Institute since at least 2008. It helps to answer why a so-called "think" tank – even one so ideologically hidebound as the
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Heartland Double Standard: Institute Tried to Scam Greenpeace for Internal Documents
heartland logo.jpg A Heartland Institute front man* phoned a Greenpeace activist and lied about his identity in an effort to get her to turn over UN climate conference documents to which he had no legitimate access. Heartland senior fellow James Taylor then boasted about the scam in a press release
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Heartland has Long History of Blowing Smoke
Joe Camel ad.jpg One of the most bizarre reactions to the St. Valetines Day Striptease, in which the Heartland Institute was tempted by a mild-mnannered scientist to completely expose itself – its strategies, funders and plans for the new year – is the complaint by "neutral" observers like Judith Curry
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Fake Heartland "Scientist" Infiltrates Canadian University
CASS logo.jpg Bogus climate course “a source of embarrassment to the institution” An energy industry public relations man and lobbyist with no background in climate science has infiltrated Carleton University in the Canadian capital of Ottawa, teaching a course on climate change denial that other Carleton professors describe as “a source
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Heartland Funding Disinformation Echo Chamber
echochamber123.jpg The Heartland Institute has been using its corporate funding to create an echo chamber of experts-for-hire, subsidiary think tanks and websites which all work together to rebroadcast information in Heartland's manufactured controversy about climate change. In the last week, Heartland has been able to rely on this network – and
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: What passes for a Brain Trust at Heartland?
heartland logo.jpg Has beens, also-rans, deniers-for-hire on retainer at "think tank" The Heartland Institute maintains a stable of 13 scientists on retainer for the express purpose of attacking the work of the Nobel Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), according to budget information released last week in the Heartland
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: At Heartland’s law firm: "Carbon Matters"
LevenfeldPearlstein_07062006.gif Levenfeld Pearlstein, the law firm that has stepped up to pass on complaints about the publication of leaked Heartland Institute documents, appears to be one of the greenest in Chicago. For example, James Brusslan, head of the Environmental Services Group at Levenfeld Pearlstein, says companies should act now to
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Whistleblower Authenticates Heartland Documents
Gleick.jpg Climate scientist Peter Gleick has acknowledged that he was the person who convinced the Heartland Institute to hand over the contents of its January Board package, authenticating the documents beyond a doubt and further exposing the disinformation campaign Heartland has pursued in the last week, trying to discredit the information. In
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Heartland Demands DeSmogBlog Remove ”Climate Strategy" Document
heartland.gif DeSmogBlog will leave them in place – in the public interest Heartland Institute general counsel Maureen Martin has sent letters to the DeSmogBlog and several other publications demanding that we remove all Heartland-related documents that we posted on February 14, as well as all related commentary. After due consideration, we could
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Climategate victims chide Heartland double standard
A group of top-tier climate scientists who were victimized in the email theft known as Climategate has written to the Heartland Institute, sympathizing that the Institute is reading its own confidential documents in the public press, but chiding the "think tank" for how irresponsibly it dealt with the stolen emails. In
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: It’s a bird; it’s a hockey stick; it’s a faked document!
heartland.gif Heartland response would be a useful PR tactic The Climate Strategy that was emailed to the DeSmogBlog with a package of material from the Heartland Institute’s Jan. 17 Board of Directors meeting is serving as an excellent distraction from the legitimate issues raised in the other documents and reinforced
Continue reading